It’s spooky season where people can dress up as silly, or as scary as they want. Halloween is a majorly celebrated holiday, statistics show that over 73.1 million people in the U.S. celebrate it. Almost 78% of people in the states dress up just for this specific holiday.

Halloween is personally one of my favorite holidays because of the overwhelming amount of spooky events, carving pumpkins, hay rides, haunted houses, etc.

At Rowan University, everyone gets together to celebrate Halloween. In the college community, we call it “Halloweekend.” This “Halloweekend” at Rowan lasts from Thursday night all the way to Saturday night but is arguably celebrated throughout the entire month of October.

Rowan is known amongst Jerseyan college kids for this much anticipated weekend, even students from outside colleges and universities come all the way to Glassboro just to celebrate. Because of this, our campus ends up extremely packed by the amount of students that come. I’ve personally heard that during the Halloween weekend at Rowan, there are so many kids roaming around and that many would party throughout the whole weekend until Saturday night.

As a result of the additional parties and festivities on and off campus, Rowan can get a bit chaotic. Due to so many students out, there are fewer parking spaces and more cars surrounding the campus. At the end of the weekend, the university ends up in pretty bad shape due to the amount of litter that is displayed. There is so much trash and plastic around the campus that accumulates after parties, which is not only obviously harmful to our environment but also to visitors who may be seeing our campus for the first time.

With the number of outside students coming into the campus, the weekend can be dangerous because you truthfully do not know who is at these parties. My tip to give out to my fellow college students is to always go out in groups. During these parties, people are more likely to get alcohol poisoning or get overwhelmed due to the congested environment.

At all times but especially during this weekend, college students have to stay alert on who is on the road. There will be a lot of reckless drivers and drunk drivers which students have to be aware of crossing the roads.

A tip that an article by CollegeXpress uses explains, “You’ve probably heard this a million times, but it’s vital to be aware of your surroundings. Fight the urge to check your phone when you’re walking, especially late at night. Keep an eye out and be aware of what’s going on around you, like who’s doing what at the Halloween party.”

Hundreds of students spend weeks planning for this particular weekend. Personally, I have always bought plenty of costumes because I never knew which one I wanted. Me and my friends would buy a different one for a different occasion. I know girls who would spend over $100 on a variety of costumes.

Kids Fight Climate Change, a nonprofit dedicated to teaching youth about climate crisis states, “Much of this waste comes from costumes. About 80 percent of costumes are made from cheap synthetic materials, including polyester. These materials are typically non-recyclable, and most costumes are discarded after just one use. The result? Costumes fill up landfills.”

Sites like Temu and Shein are all fast fashion brands that can hurt the environment. Personally, I try to buy my costumes off of websites that do not use polyester in their clothing. There are ways to get good quality clothing and not spend that much money. I know for myself, and I’m sure many others can agree, that buying a costume and never wearing it again is kind of a norm. But the truth is that wasting so much product can result in being placed in landfills which are potentially responsible for global warming. So much waste is being brought into the environment that can destroy natural habitats.

According to Jack Central, “Around 83% of materials used to make Halloween costumes are derived from plastic. With consumers in the United States expected to spend over $10 billion throughout this year’s Halloween season, organizations are looking for ways to prevent fast fashion around the holidays.”

Spending a lot of money on costumes can not only hurt your pockets but it can be hurtful to the community. I know us cheap college students will buy off-brand costumes and fast fashion. We waste so much clothing that we probably will not wear it ever again.

We as college students need to do our research on what is best for our environment and our health. For example, thrifting is a great sustainable alternative to shopping at Spirit Halloween. Halloweekend is right around the corner, we have to get excited and get our costumes ready for the spooky season. Just make sure you are doing it sustainably.

An earlier version of this article originally appeared in the The Whit, a student-operated campus news outlet for Rowan University and a content partner with South Jersey Climate News.